diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 88b1fadfad15..4d93f14904ce 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ requires-dist =
     guard
     html5lib
     Jinja2
+    markdown
     PyYAML
     raven
     readme>=0.2.0
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8dd9d2f9a2e2..45ce5489009e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ def recursive_glob(path, pattern, cutdirs=0):
     "guard",
     "html5lib",
     "Jinja2",
+    "markdown",
     "PyYAML",
     "raven",
     "readme>=0.2.0",
diff --git a/warehouse/packaging/views.py b/warehouse/packaging/views.py
index c440e63d3334..fddfa99099ea 100644
--- a/warehouse/packaging/views.py
+++ b/warehouse/packaging/views.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import jinja2
+import markdown
 import readme.rst
 
 from werkzeug.exceptions import NotFound
@@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ def project_detail(app, request, project_name, version=None):
         description_html, rendered = readme.rst.render(release["description"])
 
         if not rendered:
-            description_html = description_html.replace("\n", "<br>")
+            description_html = markdown.markdown(description_html)
 
         if app.config.camo:
             description_html = camouflage_images(